{"product_id":"the-membranes-by-ta-wei-chi-9780231195713","title":"The Membranes","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is the late twenty-first century, and Momo is the most celebrated dermal care technician in all of T City. Humanity has migrated to domes at the bottom of the sea to escape devastating climate change. The world is dominated by powerful media conglomerates and runs on exploited cyborg labour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMomo prefers to keep to herself, and anyway she's too busy for other relationships: her clients include some of the city's best-known media personalities. But after meeting her estranged mother, she begins to explore her true identity, a journey that leads to questioning the bounds of gender, memory, self, and reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in Taiwan in 1995, \u003cem\u003eThe Membranes\u003c\/em\u003e is a classic of queer speculative fiction in Chinese. Chi Ta-wei weaves dystopian tropes—heirloom animals, radiation-proof combat drones, sinister surveillance technologies—into a sensitive portrait of one young woman's quest for self-understanding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePredicting everything from fitness tracking to social media saturation, this visionary and sublime novel stands out for its queer and trans themes. \u003cem\u003eThe Membranes\u003c\/em\u003e reveals the diversity and originality of contemporary speculative fiction in Chinese, exploring gender and sexuality, technological domination, and regimes of capital, all while applying an unflinching self-reflexivity to the reader's own role.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAri Larissa Heinrich's translation brings Chi's hybrid punk sensibility to all readers interested in books that test the limits of where speculative fiction can go.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47428290511084,"sku":"9780231195713","price":31.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780231195713.jpg?v=1774497179","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/the-membranes-by-ta-wei-chi-9780231195713","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}